Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1887-04-07

III tue uulNeEec VuAF - A1n4scil,
more powerful than 4 Ibis is the
sum total Of his knos IL Beyond
these narrow con6nes must walk
by faith alone. Even evldsnce oi
his senses is untrnslu aY. and j.
daily impeaehed. Sc deals only
with the relative. aad 1f which ID
relatively, true to-day D untrue
to morrow.
Nevertheless, We can deal only with
with the relative. outside the narrow
limits of the absolute which / have
mentioned above. Relatively there.
fore, may it be said that the story
am telling is true. 1t is established
by the testimony of many ard diverse
persons. 1t appealed so stlOngly, SO
terribly, to the senses that what would
have been buried in the deepest ST.
lence was exposed to the ognition o:
strangers. 1t created considerable
stir when it happened. The witnesses
were not vulgar, illiterate people, to
whom there is nothing in tits world
but reality ard its shadow, but men
and women of culture and iig social
standing. Relatively, therefore /
must consider it true.
HAUNTED HOUSES IN WASHINGTON.
l must be permitted her to digress
a little and say that Washington city
has more than its share If haunted
houses, of ghostly visiations, of
strange scenes, stories that the scien-
tist smiles at in scorn, but shudders
as he smiles. There is no disposition
on the part of our peopleto parade
these stories. In many cas.s they are
held as heirlooms might be, of faded
and departed greatness, tiles of no.
bility, attesting the antiquity and i'm
portance of the family. With such
people ghost, bona fde, warranted.
inexplicable and especially of some
antiquity, is the American equivalent
of the German thirty-two qparterings,
an infallible test of biussbiood in the
happy possessor. This is true to a
certain extent of the old New England
families, with whom a gsrret and a
ghost are indisputable proofs of long
descent and social standing. There
is one difference between the Ameri
can of the Potomac and the Santee, a
difference which grew strictly out of
local necessities. The New England
er filled his garret with trunks and
old clothes and books; the Southern
er piled his to the rafters with South
side Madeira that had made the voy-
age to the Indies and back. In our
tropic Summers the heat under The
roof ripened the wine until Hebe her
self might not have told the difference
between it and nectar. But as a con-
sequence the ghost seldom troubled
the Southerner's garret, while they
literally ran riot in the Yankees attic.
For the shade that revisits the scenes
of earthly loves and hates must bring
with him those emotions which were
least Of earth. l have heard of Scotch
and Irish ghosts that would toss off a
bumper of whiskey as deftly as they
ever did in life, while there are not
wanting traditions that German spec.
tres have swallowed huge phantom
mugsful of shadowy beer, and 10 less
competent testimony than that OF
Diedrick knickerbocker, Esqr., is Of
iered to show that when Hollandische
Dutch spooks come back to earth they
do not disdain the fiery Hollands or
aromatic Schiedam. But these cases
are rare. A ghost, as a rule, is total
abstinent and qualified on the score
of abstention to preside at a temper
ance meeting. With regard to clothes
it is different. No female ghost ever
came back where were silks and bro
cades and velvets without longing
intensely to array herself therein.
Nor is this desire 'nnseemly. Tue
most beautiful thing in the world to
men is beautiful woman, and no
badly dressed woman is or can be
beautiful as all women will say
Beauty, the qualification of the sense
or more properly the attribute o.
beauty, is the most soul elevatine
agency there can be used to regener,
ate fallen humanity While beauty
displays itself IN many WAYS. one o
the most pleasant and potent NANTES
tations is that Of dress. I ventur,
the assertion that a slipshOd ange
with wings out of style would no
long be tolerated in those eelestia
courts where it is alleged beauty j
the indispensable Law of being. with
out which existence would cease Il
be.